Safety Touch Buttons Operate Within Dual Microcontroller Design

Operating within an internal design based on dual microcontrollers, STB self-checking optical touch buttons include a diverse-redundant microcontroller circuit the monitors the function of the primary photoelectric circuit through the use of additional emitter and receiver elements. The buttons also include separate redundant outputs. Because they switch when their light beam is broken by a simple insertion of a finger, the ergonomically designed buttons eliminate hand, wrist and arm stresses associated with repeated switch operation. No physical pressure is required to operate the buttons.The emitter and receiver responses are monitored continuously by the microcontrollers and the buttons can immediately detect any internal component failure and indicate the presence of the failure via a red fault LED. They are also immune to ambient light, EMI and RFI interference. Pricing is $112.